Learn English (How I learnt English?)

Zoeyxtkop a écrit: think English classes are way better now, at least in high school. We have much more oral comprehensions and oral expressions, and we even had to read a whole book in English

I am very pleased about what you are writing.

MurielB a écrit:
I am very pleased about what you are writing.

And I'm pleased to see that language learning is changing a bit, at least for English, because German classes aren't great. Chinese classes are really good as well.
But even though I feel like they have made improvements in English learning, it's still not that great. People who have a level which is pretty low are going to face difficulties and I don't think that's fair. I think we all need to start learning English at the same age, in the same class, you know what I mean? That would be really positive, and everyone would be approximatively at the same level, you know ? And then they also need to help people with weakness in the language. That's only my opinion though ^^

Don't you think that the attitude of  students being afraid or embarrassed of making mistakes, has a detrimental effect on English learning ?

MurielB a écrit:Don't you think that the attitude of  students being afraid or embarrassed of making mistakes, has a detrimental effect on English learning ?

Yeah, that's also a big problem. Obviously in our society making mistakes is kind of a shame. We have exams which are one time try, you most of the time don't get two chances to succeed. That's a big problem. And I think that teachers should say at the beginning of each years "don't be afraid to make mistakes, I am here to help you" maybe that would encourage afraid ones to speak a little more.

Zoeyxtkop a écrit:Obviously in our society making mistakes is kind of a shame.

A Very big Problem !!!!

MurielB a écrit:

A Very big Problem !!!!

Yeah, and unfortunately, I don't think teachers are doing anything against that... Like, I know some teachers kind of blame students for making mistakes. And a lot focus more on good students rather than the ones struggling in the back of the class...

But the most horrible thing for me is my german teacher... our german classes just suck. Like, we learn nothing really and when we ask about basic structures we NEVER saw, she's always saying we should know that... But the point of a class is actually learning so.. Well, that's annoying. And that's hard for me to learn German because of that. But I love German, I will somehow learn it myself. It will just take time and patience... :/

Zoeyxtkop a écrit:But I love German, I will somehow learn it myself. It will just take time and patience... :/

You are right,Zoeyxtkop, when there's a will there's a way. Learning a new language is a challenging task and demands hundreds of hours of regular practice but internet can help for there are  many useful devices. Here is a very interesting site for german-learning one of our members has posted=>Apprendre l'allemand

Hi, I'm coming back on this after a while and oh my goodness, the number of mistakes I used to make is humongous.
It's amusing to read those messages again and see how much I improved.

Now, of course, I probably still make significant mistakes especially when I write.
See, right as I'm saying that I'm not sure if I should have written: "When I'm writing" instead of "When I write"... For my defence, "when" is quite annoying in its usage, at least for me. I had an English linguistics course for a semester and we spent at least half an hour on the use of this conjunction.
I'm also struggling with formal speeches, avoiding colloquialism is hard.
I guess I am now stuck at the dreadful intermediate level, which is this level where you don't seem to be improving anymore since you have "good enough" of everything, grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, ...
It's good enough to hold conversations even with complex topics, but not enough to write a story with good writing for example.

So, there you go, that was my improvement check-up, I guess. I don't know if this is interesting for anyone besides me. Also, if you happen to have experienced the same HORRIBLE struggle of, what I would call, "the intermediate level trap" (sounds very dark, I know), maybe you can give me some advice on how to keep improving.

(Don't hesitate to give feedback on my current English level and mistakes I made in this post)

I also hope you are doing well

Hello, nice to talk to you again!

MurielB a écrit: congratulations for your text.

Thanks a lot haha

MurielB a écrit: I would have said "used to".

Yeah, you're right! It sounds the same so I get confused from time to time! Thanks for the reminder

MurielB a écrit: you have taught me a new word I didn't know : "humongous "

Wow, really? I recommend this word 100%, it's such a classy way of saying big or enormous!

MurielB a écrit:  I would say "Never give up improving your English". Listen to  English music, read English books[font=Arial,Helvetica,Sans-Serif],watch English films, socialize with English people etc.

Thanks for your advice, however, I'm already doing all of those things... Maybe I am improving but it simply doesn't feel like it haha. The only thing I am not doing, and I'm working on at the moment is reading more English books. I recently started 1984, I'm enjoying it very much I must say, George Orwell has a very nice writing style.  

MurielB a écrit: Writing can be a great way of properly learning the kind of vocabulary you need to describe your own life and interests.

I completely agree with you on that! Writing is a great way of learning if you're able to catch your own mistakes easily or do some research each time you reached an impasse in your grammar or vocabulary.  

This forum is a great place indeed, it was very welcoming a few years ago and I'm sure it still is!

MurielB a écrit:  We can help each other.

We sure can! As of now, I spotted a few mistakes in your message, nothing humongous don't worry. (See, the word humongous is particularly useful).

Firstly, we don't say congratulations FOR but ON, so the correct phrase would be "congratulations on your text".
Also, you should be careful with punctuation. English punctuation differs a lot from the French one. For example, no space between the last word and a question mark, an exclamation mark or a colon. After words like "Anyway", "See", "therefore" sometimes even after "but", you need a comma, even though most of the time you won't hear it while speaking, in written English there often is one.

Advice is uncountable so, you can't say "an advice", the correct way is "some advice" or if you really want a singular there, you can say "a piece of advice".
Personally is spelt with only one "n". And every day has to be two separate words, otherwise, I'm pretty sure it falls into colloquial English (which isn't bad, obviously. But I don't know what kind of English you want to speak nor write, so I'm pointing it out, you can ignore if it just is the kind of English you want to learn).

There you go, I hope some of that was useful

Hi Zoey
You are more than welcome in that forum. I really appreciate your feedback. It's true that if no one points out our mistakes, we don't make any progress...I note "congratulations on" "a piece of advice" "personally" and I'll revise the English punctuation that I have forgotten. You've just mentioned Orwell. George Orwell. I've enjoyed reading Animal farm.  You can see our comments here=>animal farm

Zoey a écrit:But I don't know what kind of English you want to speak nor write

=> I would write "But I don't know what kind of English you want to speak or write"
looking forward to reading you Muriel